There's his wife, of course, and since the plot demands it, Kaiser Franz Ferdinand and his son Rudolph. I seem to recall looking up a few other names while watching the series, and a few belonged to historical characters, although they had minor roles.

Freud himself is quite unlike his real-world counterpart; it's as if he came out of the Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes School for Gifted Classic Characters.

Watched Splendor In The Grass. Recorded it the other day off of TCM and watched it this afternoon, really great movie

In trying to find stuff for my parents to watch that's not garbage we had been watching Foyle's War which they both found they really liked, but having gone through all of those I wanted something along the same lines I thought they'd like, and so I thought of Inspector George Gently. I was only familiar with the later series of the show but thought starting at the beginning was a smart move... wrong. I have no idea why but there is a lot of violence by this Sgt. Bacchus sidekick type police detective guy to the point of ruining the show, and now in a series 3 episode Gently himself encourages young Beatles-haircutted Bacchus to physically beat/interrogate a character obviously disabled! How can a series so much better balanced in the later ones I saw have come from this mess... it's full of everything people might fear of an ITV program, salacious sexual elements and graphic violence, but this was a BBC series!

Well, I now feel a pratt for having cited this show as one of my favorites for so long, I've been embarrassed by most of the episodes in the first three seasons, maybe I had better either zip ahead to season 5 or 6 to salvage things, or just start in on the lighter less gritty-violent-salacious Heartbeat. If you want to give Gently a go my advice is to totally skip season 2 & 3, maybe also 4, I haven't seen that one. Later there is a regular female addition to the cast and Gently has to deal with continuing to work after an MS diagnosis, and Bacchus while still a whinging idiot I don't remember being totally needlessly violent near as much. Shame on the Beeb for trying to tart up a good show with ratings grabbing sax and violins.

In earlier episodes Inspector Gently admonishes Sgt. Bacchus for slapping or hitting suspects and for deciding who is guilty on insufficient evidence, but in this one where one child has been killed he encourages Baccus to viciously beat more than one suspect, and the disabled man even gives a false confession which Gently then sees through. That false confession was to protect a child, the man's niece, who is the actual murderer of the child we eventually find out. She is considered an evil seed because her biological father was an incestuous rapist and Gently is overly compassionate towards her, yet not to at all to the disabled uncle who is entirely innocent. They never apologize to him later which Gently has to others of Sgt. Bacchus's 'victims' in the past, nor the other suspect that was also manhandled (the girl's step-Dad who also gives a false confession trying to protect the girl).

It's the worst of a lot that was needlessly graphic and sexual before and ruins the George Gently character trying to make him Cracker or someone else entirely. I think possibly what happened is there were multiple writers and one got some kind of vicarious anger out on the two adult male suspects being grilled for the brutal beating death of the girl's mother and the death of a child and attempt on another. Even if they had been guilty it would be gratuitous beating either, but the one beaten worst is entirely not guilty of anything but that false confession afterwards, nor even of comprehending all of what these police are imaging he might have done to anyone. He actually intercepts one child the evil seed girl was trying to lead off and brings him back to his parents which is doing good.

Season 3, Episode 1... set in 1966. The little girl killer gets twenty years+, whereas usually they show someone going to the gallows and being hanged as the end of an episode. I don't remember that as such a regular feature, nor the physical assaults on suspects, in the later series. This is the last one I think we're going to watch, all of us felt brutalized and confused by it. The violence was up there with the most graphic Sopranos, a woman that was beaten to death, the suspects being beaten bloody... not quite Watchmen: The Director's Cut, and it can be important that violence be shown realistically, but there is just no fall-out of Bacchus' well over-the-line procedurally behaviour, only approval and encouragement from Gently where before he at least gave lip service to disapproving and apology to the receiver. It's not even commented on. I would say Sgt. Bacchus got away with an actual crime by both today's standards and 1966's.

I was a bit angry over an earlier episode with it's lacking any human humour where there had been some before, and needless brutality, verbal and physical, but this one just makes me fear us watching any more and wishing I'd stopped with that previous episode, or even never having recommended it as a series.

Adult Swim has cancelled Venture Bros. I really hope it gets picked up, even if they just get to do a movie. Apparently they were halfway through writing on the final season when it was cancelled.

I am really bummed.

I've watched two Endeavours and liked them, especially liked the one with the Gerry (& Sylvia) Anderson tribute! It might be a bit too involved sometimes for my father though... my mother reads more crime fiction than anyone I've ever known of (averaging a novel every other day) so it's probably impossible to hit that perfect spot that pleases both parents. My Dad has read a lot on the war he was a toddler during, and with Foyle's War he would explain things to my Mom (and me) about that, and then my Mom would explain the whodunnit part sometimes where he (or me too) hadn't followed it. They both liked Sam the driver, I'm thinking the lighter Heartbeat about a constable in rural '60s England might be appealing, plus they will like the late '50s-'60s music in it.

The other things we can watch together besides Jeopardy is the old On The Road with Charles Kuralt, Antiques Roadshow (preferably the British one), and a newer show called The Repair Shop where people bring in old heirlooms for fixing/restoration. They went wild for the Shogun mini-series but there weren't many shows like that. It's possible I'll try some Endeavours or Morses though and see what they think. My Mom and I watched a series titled Mayday for however long that went until the big Broadchurch type mystery was solved, and also a supernatural series that lasted two seasons titled After Life (my Dad would hate that kind of thing though with psychics and supernatural stuff). I've watched Shetland and Happy Valley on my own.

6 more BBC favorite's of which I watch very regularly:

Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder. Starts slow but truly uproarious laugh inducing belly pain from season 2, 3 and 4.

John Cleese's Fawlty Towers provides you the worst vacation hotel stay you will ever have but you will check out laughing loudly.

Waiting for God starring Stephanie Cole and Graham Crowden all about growing old with charm and disgrace in a British retirement village. These 2 old fogies choose to NOT grow old gracefully in being non-conformist in fighting authority each day even should it be to their last breath...

Then from comedy to fantasy and historical drama. First up the spectacular mini-series I spent many a Sunday night sitting up late to watch on Masterpiece Theatre: I Claudius which propelled Riman History into Must See TV for many of us. So many great actors to watch with Derek Jacobi, Brian, Patrick Stewart and John Hurt as Caligula!

Then there is Robin of Sherwood with not one but 2 Hoooded men in Michael Praed and Jason Connery. Such a dark fantasy epic series enhanced with orchestral splendor from Clannad setting the tone and mood of the series. Much as I love Errol Flynn, this show is what Robin Hood should be.

Last and certainly not least is a splendid mystery adaptation by Ian McShane as the one and only Lovejoy. Dealer of great and not so great antiquities, love and mysteries. Always in more trouble than out our man Lovejoy schmooze's his way in and out of shenanigans as a natural way of life for himself. Charming everyone, but especially the ladies along the way...